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Unemployment is the condition of someone of working age (16-64) who is willing and able to work, actively seeking employment, but unable to find a job. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the total force in a nation that is unemployed. This article lists unemployment rates in various states of India, compares unemployment rates in rural and urban areas and also provides unemployment of women compared to men. The differences are extreme. India had a nation-wide unemployment rate of 3.8% (for June 2012) while the rate is as high as 17.9% in Goa. The lowest unemployment rate is in Gujarat at 1%. There are also large differences between male and female unemployment in India. While male unemployment stands at 2.9% female is at 6.9%. If we focus on a specific state in India, the female unemployment rate was highest in Goa at 46.2%. The unemployment rate is also very different between rural and urban areas. The article only provides figures for females. 28% of females were unemployed in rural areas compared to 17.9% in urban areas on a national level. The highest female unemployment rate in urban areas is in Sikkim at 51.1%. - Julieta Fischer

Iceland has been in a serious recession with great inflation rates for several years. To control the situation, the Central bank has started to raise interest rates with the hope to decrease inflation and bring prices back to normal levels. By increasing interest rates consumers will stop borrowing as much money which will cause a decrease in consumption. In addition it will become more expensive for firms to borrow money for their investments and they will decrease investments well. Overall these two factors will cause a decrease in aggregate demand in Iceland. This will push down prices and cause disinflation in the long run. Due to these decreasing prices goods and services from Iceland become more attractive to foreign consumers causing an increase in exports which may strengthen the currency. The article states that due to the increased interest rates inflation remained stable for the past months. This shows that households and firms are consuming/investing less which stops further inflation.

India's inflation rate rose to 7.55% in August, rise that was much faster than expected by analysts. The primary reason behind this is a rise in India's food prices. In order to decrease inflation and lower prices, the Reserve Bank of India tried to raise interest rates. This should cause a decrease in consumption and demand. Thus in the long-run, disinflation will occur as firms will be forced to lower prices in order to maintain a profit. However, altering interest rates has been tricky for central policy-makers as India imports a large quantity of their food from the US, who ultimately have control the prices.  The US will probably add to India's inflation as they are "likely to push up global commodity prices".  Even through raising interest rates, which can be damaging as they hurt businesses and consumer confidence, India still has little control over global prices. As a result, India's inflation will raise even. 

According to this Article inflation in Turkey increased to 10.45% and the central bank's Inflation rate was 5.5%. This difference in inflation rate occurs because when a country's central bank tries to fight inflation, as is being done in Turkey, the nominal interest rate will still tend to increase. Consequently, investment and consumption are discouraged due to the high inflation rate set by banks. This is because firms will not invest anymore because it is more expensive to borrow money and consume. In addition, consumption will decrease because the cost of borrowing money to consume large goods such as cars or houses is a lot more expensive.  

India's investors and some politicians want the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to lower its interest rates so that more firms could invest in capital goods in the country. This would increase investment, which in turn would shift aggregate demand to the right and lead to GDP growth. RBI however argues that lowering the interest rates could cause inflation to go up, which in turn would have a great effect on India's lower class citizens. The RBI also argues that interest rates are not very high at the moment, and blame the lack of investment in 'bad governance and lack of reforms'. If the RBI lowered the interest rates and investment did not increase much as they argue, while inflation goes up, many poor people would suffer in the process as they wouldn't be able to buy as many essential goods such as food. This would cause a movement along the aggregate demand curve as price level goes up. On the other hand, from an investor's perspective this would be the best way to generate economic growth, which would benefit the country as a whole if it led to more investment on capital goods.

Investors in India are asking the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for lower interest rates, so that more can be invested in order to accelerate the country's growth rate (which has been decelerating). However, the RBI is concerned that this could lead to an increase in inflation (which is already high) as AD would increase, causing the country to produce beyond its full level of employment, meaning that price levels would raise more than RGDP proportionally (demand pull inflation). The RBI believes that people are more concerned with inflation as it causes the price of food to go up, affecting poor families. However, there is a possibility that growth is of more importance to Indians when looking at the country's economic performance. Other factors such as an increase in oil prices and a poor-monsoon could drive food prices even higher. As result the Indian RBI must be very cautious whether it will be worth lowering interest rates.

This article discusses how Australia's unemployment rate fell unexpectedly. Unemployment decreased to 5.1% from 5.2% in July in a time in which a Bloomberg survey of 23 economists predicted it to increase to 5.3%. The reason given for this is that the labor participation rate slumped to lowest level in more than five years, a sign workers looking for jobs have exited the labor force. Unemployment had been expected to rise - although the economy grew by about 4% on the back of a strong resource industry, a stronger currency and slower global growth led to job reductions at companies including Ford and Qantas. Employment in the states of Victoria and South Australia dropped 14,800 and 9,000 respectively, but increased by 6,900 in Western Australia and 5,800 in Queensland which are centers of the resource industry.

The article is about the stabilization of unemployment rate of Italy which is currently around 10.7 percent, however the youth unemployment rate in Italy is around 35.3 percent which has increased from 33.6 percent of last year. The unemployment has mostly been caused by the business cycle in Italy which is currently in a recession

Germany's unemployment rates have been rising as firms are dropping their demand for labor. In many cases, firms are not firing workers, but they are also not hiring new workers, which causes an increase in unemployment rates as the labor force increases. Although Germany's unemployment remains low (5.4%) compared to other members of the European Union, the rise in unemployment rates is worrying as it could lead to a fall in aggregate demand and lead to recession. Right now, Germany is still growing at a rate of over 1% per year, which is why the higher unemployment rates are considered seasonal, as mentioned in the article. However, if people start losing jobs and there is no labor demand in the long-run, this could trigger a recession and a permanent cyclical unemployment.

The increase of the inflation rate is due to a price rise in housing costs and air fares. As rents increased, the over all consumer price index rose "followed by alcohol and tobacco, food, restaurants, and leisure". Cost-push inflation is currently going on in the UK as wages are not rising as quickly as prices for goods and services. UK has frozen both council tax and fuel tax and reduced income tax. Bank of England but its groth forecast to zero. The Bank is cutting intrest rates to get consumers buying again. Lowering tax and intrest rates will help consumers have more money in their pockets and, therefore, more to spend

This article states that Canada's inflation rate has unexpectedly slowed for a second month this past August, meaning a disinflation is taking place. The consumer price index in Canada rose 1.2% in August from a year ago compared to a 1.3% gain in July, showing a slowing down in the rate of inflation. This has reduced pressure for the Bank of Canada governor to raise interest rates. Normally, when a country's price levels are increasing and inflation is taking place, banks are encouraged to increase interest rates. Increasing them make it more profitable for consumers to borrow less and invest more, resulting in a decrease in consumption and therefore a decrease in AD. This will lower price levels in the country in the long run, solving or reducing the problem of inflation.

According to this article, Germany's unemployment had increased for a fifth month in august. The unemployment rate is currently at 6.8%. This increase in unemployment was a consequence of the European debt crisis, which had severely decreased demand for exports, causing companies to hold back on investments.  These two factors have therefore decreased both aggregate demand (net exports decrease) and aggregate supply (decrease in investments). Therefore fewer jobs are required as less output is being demanded. This is shown by the numerous job cuts which have occurred throughout Germany. "Siemens AG (SIE) said on Aug. 27 it will cut 500 jobs at its German factories making industrial gear boxes and clutches by 2016, citing slack demand".   However, the article states that the unemployment rate is still the lowest it has been for the past two decades, and meanwhile wages are rising. This increase in wages is boosting consumer spending, therefore causing an increase in aggregate demand, which should eventually allow for aggregate supply to increase, and therefore increasing the need for workers.  Moreover, although unemployment has risen in Germany, it still does not yet compare to the 8.2% unemployment of the US, the 10.8% in Italy, and the euro-area average of 11.2%. 

The article describes how unemployment in Argentina has dropped below 7% for the first time in a long time. The decreased unemployment is due to an increase in the country's exports and an increase in national aggregate demand. Both of these things would cause an increase in aggregate supply, which in result would increase the aggregate supply of labor, causing the unemployment rate to decrease. However, this is only seen as a short term change, as the export are expected to decrease due to the economic crisis in Europe, and the increasing movement of production to china, and the growing competition from Chinese produced goods, because of the cheaper prices. This would cause aggregate demand in Argentina to decrease, which would cause a response from the short run aggregate supply, in the form or a decrease. This would again cause the aggregate supply of labor to fall back down again, resulting in the unemployment rate rising again.

As we know, inflation is a rise in price levels. In India at the moment, there is a slide in the value of the rupee, and simultaneously food, fuel and manufactured items are raising in price, leading in a high inflation. This is an exmple of stagflation becuase it is a 'cost-push' inflation (inflation caused by rising costs of products).  In India, the inflation rate was expected to rise 6.7% (by economists) but it actually rose 7.23%.

The unemployment rate in Scotland has increased to 8.2 percent within the last three months. It is now worse than the UK unemployment rate, which is at about 8.1 percent.In order to fix the problem, the government has now decided to step in, in order to achieve economic growth and get people back into work. The government wants to do this by simplifying the business environment and reform the tax system for companies in order to help them create more jobs. By decreasing the costs of production, the government wants the SRAS curve to shift to the right and therefor increase aggregate supply. If costs of producing are lower, firms will higher more workers, which will result in less unemployment according to theory. 

Ireland's high current unemployment rate of 14.9 percent is a result from its economic situation : Ireland is in a recession. The article clearly stipulates this, there is a 'recession in the real domestic economy'. The recession arose from the housing bubble : mortgages were cheap, people overborrowed and then the high housing prices fell so that people were less wealthy and no longer able to pay their mortgages. Wealth is a determinant of AD. It is the added value of all assets or stocks. If wealth or perceived wealth increases, then so will a household's consumption of goods, thereby shifting demand, as the household feels 'wealthier' or able to purchase more. The reverse is also the case, when wealth declines, demand declines, such as in Ireland. The Irish were much less willing to consume goods, as they believed they were less wealthy or had less money( which they eventually did , upon having to pay mortgages; debt), and so consumption decreased, which thus shifted aggregate demand into a demand slide recession. This is a situation where prices in a nation inflate and output decreases, due to the lesser demand. If less is being produced, less factors of production are required. Thus labor, a major factor of production is no longer required in the economy, which gives firms the incentive to lay off many of their workers. This is the unemployment Ireland is experiencing. It is interesting that the article also depicts the  'austerity drive'  that the Irish government resulted to in the recession.  As it correctly suggests, this is 'self defeating', as during a demand slide recession the Keynesian policy follows that the government should not save its funding, but rather spend. In a time of recession, the government should spend,  so as to decrease unemployment stimulate the economy. If the government spends, this will have a multiplier effect through the economy, as it provides income to households ( by spending, the government employs labor), where househo

This article describes how the Brazilian government tries to increase investment and consumption through tax cuts. In particular on trucks, machinery, and automobiles the government reduces or gives an extension on the taxes. Another measure to stimulate investment in the country is via reducing its interest rate to an all-time low of 7.5 %. 

The author is defending the single number UE rate as a measure of an economy's well being. His core point, some countries don't encourage working to the same degree as the US. In other words, some countries policies instead encourage people to stay home (and care chldren, for example). Thus, the labor force participation rate for such a country (Germany, in this case) is lower. So, in this sense, to know if the economy is doing well, the UE, as measured against the labor force, is a better single measure.

The article discusses how the unemployment rate in Turkey increases unlike any other EU country. In March the Employment rate went from 10.8 percent in the previous year to 9.9 percent. The number of rural employment was 6.4 percent and the urban employment 11.6 percent. The total number of unemployment decreased 2.6 million and the number of employed people rose to 23.8 million. According to a Turkish economist, Gulay Elif Girgin, in future the unemployment rate will continue to rise and he does not anticipate any unexpected decreases.